travel_dude

I was talking about what Bosn111 had said about excess LD and not enough RD. Weeger is actually more of a #1D than Hanifin. Does that mean the top pair is Weeger-Ras? 2nd pair is a choice of Hanifin or Kylington, with Hanifin being the more experienced. Doesn't mean he is the right choice, just currently more consistent. Meloche for sure was a Guddy replacement. The addition of Weeger puts in doubt any of the pairs though. Do you use a 3rd pairing guy like Meloche or a puck mover like Kylington. Do you trade Hanifin or Kylington to improve the forward group? Valimaki and Mackey don't learn the game sitting out for games upon games.

One was a jerk, who decided he wanted to take his toys and live the high life in South Florida. The other made what he described as a family decision to live where his family could easily visit. This has been discussed to death in other threads. If Hubie doesn't want to sign, it has nothing to do with Tkachuk or Gaudreau's reasons.

Yes, you can use the extra year to bring down the AAV. If Tkachuk got $9.5M x 8, why do you think Hubie should sign for less AAV? The structure of the deal may be important, but the total and best years pay means something too.

Why did two US players decide to leave? Many reasons. Why is Toronto able to sign players. Or Vancouver. Or Montreal?

Well, I would suspect that Huska was on Kylington about his defensive play. Defense coach and all. Sutter would make lineup decisions and things like who goes out at certain points and on the PP. Ward had Kylington for 3 games and Sutter sat him after 3 games played until the last 2 games in May. I think the kicker for Sutter was the game against EDM. Kylington took the demotions and came into camp ready to take the spot.

I am a little confused by your post. Both players are Canadians. As far as I know, they haven't become Americans. As far as what they sing here, 8 years takes them to the end of their careers. They can sign short term deals then, but the team is on the hook for their entire cap hit if they retire early. Joe Pavelsky signed a long deal before he turned 35, so there would be no cap penalty if he had retired. His newest deal is one year. Lower risk.

Obviously. Sometimes a short reply only has one meaning and is obvious. Yikes, this was not one of those replies.

Sutter made a lot of differences with players last year. A long list of players with career years, and that's not just the result of Guadreau and Tkachuk making them better players, is it. Ward was a coach that only gave you one chance. Constant moving around pieces. Tring to justify his hiring. There was a disconnect between the AHL and NHL. Do you think Love was a dud? He did well with a mostly journeyman defense and some great prospects.

The collision where he went cartwheeling into the boards was the one I found to be season changing. His neck bent backwards. Looked like it was going to be a long term concussion protocol. It was what, a week? He may have started to struggle sooner, but I noticed it more after he returned. He was one guy you could count to be able to go from the O-zone blueline to catching and angling off a player. He was less apt to get burned at the blueline and be forced to take a penalty. He wasn't soft defending. I do think he needs to slow down the reads in the O-zone. Not well thought out. Not so much how he holds the line as much as what he does with the puck. A muffin at the goalie is a waste if nobody is in front. No point in take the puck end to end if all you are going to do is skate around the net and then dump it back to the corner. Trading him or Hanifin comes down to ceiling and roster fit. It may be the wrong time to trade Hanifin without seeing what Kyl shows up at camp, but on the other hand you can't really wait until a signing or award to decide on a player. At least that is my thinking. I don't think we really have any idea of the D pairs, so which players offer you the most flexibility. Can't keep 10D, all of which require waivers.

Rules aside, this confirmed to Tkachuk he was going to be a Panther for 8 years with a known salary and bonus structure. Less worrying about contracts talks.

Thanks for reminding me what should have been too obvious abut the difference. This equates what Gaudreau was able to do in June and part of July. They have to be fairly short term to get a new contract before they hit 35. I think Hubie would have to re-sign after 5 years. A shorter deal (5 year) probably drives up the price considerably. Could be wrong about that, but I think the longer deal allows us to manage the cap a bit better.

One source suggests that Hibie and Weegs can both now sign 8 year extensions. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that, but it begs the question why Gaudreau wasn't able to. The reasons for being able to are far less important. I am more interested in the question of it makes more sense for us to do it. 8 years lets you add in a year to lower the AAV. But does the player really care about the AAV as much as the structure? 8 years may be harder to sign a brand new player to.

BTW, any interest in LW/RW Jonathan Dahlen? Pretty decent rookie season, first since coming to NA. Can't imagine he would be expensive.

The eye test for me started to go south after his first injury. I don't know if he was still hurting or changed something in his game, but it seemed like he lost some of what made him a good puck mover and good at checking. It's almost like he started suffering from vertigo and his balance was completely off. It is possible though that he was never used to a full NHL season and just couldn't keep up the same rate of play. So the analytics would average out over the season from very good to just good. If either of those two reasons played into his play, then he could very well come back with the same effort as last season's first half, but keep it going for the season.

Well, I somehow doubt that BT is finished with this group of players. He saw our limitations in the playoffs. In one trade, he has fixed a couple of problems we had, but that was not part of the original plan. It's safe to say that Monahan was likely a casualty of the cap and poor play anyway, so it's not too far fetched that he has had some talks about shipping him out. The immediate focus was dealing with the top 2 players needing deals and go from there. Next up Mangiapane. Lucic is less of an issue other than taking up a roster spot while contributing little to the game. We saw that deficiency in the playoffs. Not so much in the first round, but contributed to the 2nd round loss. If we move out both Monahan and Lucic, then we have two players to replace. Really it translates to 3C and 3LW. We can bring in both Pelletier and Ruzicka to play with Toffoli. The boosts the roster numbers but are we able to have a secondary scoring line? Assuming Mangiapane on the top line, the Backlund line has less scoring now with Dube and Coleman.

And some of the rumors were debunked. Tarasenko was never even asked to waive his full NTC for a trade, so how do you make any offer with a player like that. I suspect we will never really know any of the offers because it benefits nobody having it out there. As for trading for Necas, it only makes sense if they have some reservations about the players are are trading when his value is lower. He's coming off a season where his p/gp dropped fairly significantly. If we could get him for a D that we are looking to trade anyway, plus a roster player, then it's a reasonable trade. Otherwise the cost/benefit rules it out.

I'm not even sure we have seen close to the best that Vladar has to offer. He has to face waivers should we want to play Wolf, if there are no injuries. As a young goalie with arbitration rights, I'm not sure he gets a huge award next summer. 28 games in the NHL so far. Having a really good backup in the NHL is a good problem to have. Having Wolf in the AHL is not the biggest problem.

It's a fair question Bert. We have 10D that are NHL capable. Can't horde them all, we lose 2 for nothing. Trading for another player is typical. 3 players walked. One traded. We aren't the same team that won the division. I think we are close, but missing some players that were NHL ones last year. Probably don't even need Statsny, but nice having the guy that scores 20. And yes, we did sign a solder in Lewis. Playoff depth if you like. Necas is the replacement for what Monahan used to be. If all we did was trade for Necas, we are better set up with a young player. Winger or C.

Sure. I am fine with that. It's not like we have 2 of them. We are one of the few teams with zero players making over $7M.

Barzal is something we can't afford. I am a bit concerned that we would have another Tkachuk on our hands. NOt the US, gotta be in the US attitude, but the better than you one. The only way it makes sense is buy low. I think that one of Hanifin or Kylington has to go. Depth was our strength until it wasn't. But we have too many guys to carry. It's quite difficult to finish the team before camp, but also harder to get players then. If we can get Necas out of CAR without breaking the bank, I think his game translates easily to the Flames. If we sign Statsny, then we have another 20 goal scorer for the bottom 6.Still can graduate Pelletier and Rozie. We have to have a serious convesation about Lucic and Monahan. We aren't helping Monahan by keeping him. Lucic was reduced to a role player that had trouble with the role. Of we can find a deal in BOS or Seattle, we should consider it. VAN might be the right spot but I think they are a weird team. Nobody really in sync. He would get frustrated there.

I think I had said elsewhere that he's easily worth what Gaudreau was to us. Or I should say what we offered. Make it simple. He will get what he should have got in FLA. Starts at 10. It's only 7 years.

Forgive me if I question the fit. Monahan goes from not being able to play top line with Gaudreau and Lindholm to not being able to play on the PP to 4th line. Now, we are taking our best player and subjecting him to Monahan? My lines may not be really any better, but it keeps Mangiapane where he scored 35 goals. That line was the one that managed to actually stop the other teams from scoring. It provides Toffoli a playmaker that he's never had here. The 3rd line is our 2nd scoring line and is used more at home where we control the matchups. If you like, you can put Necas on the top line over Toffoli and Toffoli stuill has a playmaker and a pretty strong C. We don't really have any control over Lucic, but I don't know that he wants to play the final year for $1M after he's already collected his bonus. He might want to play with Hubie, but he may also want to take the bonus and hang it up. His right to do so. Monahan is a must move piece.

I was thinking get him signed before the snow falls late August. LOL. It's going to take a wee bit of time to finalize the deal. The agent and GM work the summer. Sutter has a rep, and I am inclined to get him locked up before TC really gets going. But what do I know. You want him settling into the city before the TC starts. KNowing that you are looking for a home or fancy condo is key. One implies long term. But, I do agree that the players need to meet up, so that he can get a sense of the city. What's a good area to live. What's the best commute. Who is he fishing with. BBQ time.

He bends more than a willow tree. For such a great player, his biggest contribution to the Flames playoffs was Game 1 against the Oilers. Game 1, 3g 1a +1. Games 2-5, 1a, combined -5. It an over simplifcation. Wasted a lot of energy doing things that had zero impact in a game. He was starting to get a rep as being like Burrows. Trying to draw penalties out of nothing. I think that CBJ got the best player we had. And we got the best player available this summer.

Just a suggestion. I don't want to pay that much to begin with. Barzal is more of a playmaker, so he doesn't add his own goals as much as the guys he plays with. He's got another Tkachuk style deal and I doubt BT wants to go there again.